Tecnam P2010 certified in Europe

July 30, 2014

ByThomas A. Horne

Tecnam’s new four-seat, 133-knot, 180-horsepower model P2010 has taken one big step toward U.S. certification under FAR Part 23. The company said that the airplane had earned European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification, and that deliveries would begin this week. In the next five weeks, Tecnam said that 15 P2010s will be in the hands of owners.

To date, a worldwide total of 35 to 40 P2010 orders had been placed, with 10 of those coming from the United States, Tecnam said. A $5,000 deposit is required to secure a delivery position for the $385,000 airplane, which is powered by a Lycoming IO-360-M1A engine—the most modern, lightest IO-360 ever built, according to a Lycoming spokesman. The P2010 can be ordered with a variety of avionics packages, among them the Garmin G500 or G1000 avionics packages.

According to Shannon Yaeger, Tecnam’s director of U.S. sales, the next steps toward FAA certification will occur within approximately two weeks, when the first P2010s arrive from the Italian factory. The airplanes will be sent to the company’s new showroom, delivery center, and maintenance training facility in Sebring, Florida.

“After that, the FAA should take about one month to perform all the tests necessary to demonstrate conformity with U.S. rules,” Yaeger said. “And after it’s certified we’ll be taking the airplane on a seven-stop tour around the United States.”

AOPA Pilot Editor at Large Tom Horne has worked at AOPA since the early 1980s. He began flying in 1975 and has an airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates. He’s flown everything from ultralights to Gulfstreams and ferried numerous piston airplanes across the Atlantic.

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